PARIS — Emmanuel Macron’s campaigning team wants the same rules to apply to the French president and his rivals on Twitter, according to local media.
In mid-March, the National committee of electoral campaign control asked the president’s team to stop using Macron’s Twitter account for campaigning purposes after his “letter to the French people” announcing his candidacy was shared with his eight million followers.
Now, the head of state’s camp is arguing that other presidential candidates such as Valérie Pécresse, the president of the greater Paris region, and Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo should not be allowed to share material about the presidential campaign on their personal accounts.
“None of the candidates, with the exception of ours, have implemented” the committee’s recommendations, Macron’s team wrote in a letter obtained by Agence France-Presse, hoping that they will be “applied with the same diligence by all other candidates who used their accounts.”
Macron’s campaign is no longer using his personal Twitter account, but instead another one called “Emmanuel Macron avec vous,” which has a much more limited audience with about 23,100 followers so far. The French president’s speech about his electoral program last week was broadcast on the latter.
The spat underscores how important social media is to France’s presidential campaign. It also shows how tricky it is for Macron to be both a sitting president while seeking re-election. He is however on track to retain his presidency, based on POLITICO’s Poll of Polls.
https://ift.tt/AHrKkx7 March 21, 2022 at 04:36PM
Laura Kayali